6 out of 6 band members have long, swooping hair cuts.

The above photo is of the latest Fearless Records band, THE WORD ALIVE. More thoughts after the jump.

- I’ve been away from this music scene for quite some time now, and this is one of the biggest reasons why. THE WORD ALIVE is the typical screamo/metalcore band that you can’t completely trash because “they do some things well,” but at the end of the day they’re doing something that really has been beaten deep into the bedrock of the genre. What’s worse is that it becomes increasingly more difficult to determine what is in fact sincere vs. what is contrived garbage. Case in point: Of Machines. They’re very much in the same vein as THE WORD ALIVE (and feature 4/6 swopping cuts), but for some reason what they’re doing is slightly more tolerable and, dare I say, genuine. But is it really fair to try to determine a band’s motives? This is the internal struggle that’s pushed me away for so long.